Large House

Steve_55

I have a large house, with a well tuned 1926-era, oil-powered, two pipe vaccum vapor system.

We usually only use 2 or 3 of the rooms. Would it hurt the system or its performance if I turned down (or even closed) the radiator valves in the rooms not used often?

Would it save enough fuel to make it worthwhile?

Thanks,
Steve

Constantin

A fellow homeowners perspective...

If it's steam... and you still have the original valves on the radiators, chances are you can only do on-off with them. Nowadays it is possible to buy valves that work with steam to maintain a certain temperature in a room (so-called thermostatic-radiator valves (TRVs)). Dan has a nice article on them here. They might be a good idea in your case since they'll allow you to lower the temp in rooms not used while maintaining a minimum temp throughout the house.

In my experience, turning off the odd radiator does speed steam system response elsewhere w/o any detriment to the boiler. However, be sure to keep the thermostat controlling the boiler in a heated room (otherwise,the boiler will get really confused).

In my opinion, turning off the odd valve may or may not save any energy depending on how much the old steam system is oversized (many are, grossly so, perticularly if the house has been weatherized since the installation of the heating system).

If your steam heating system short-cycles even in the coldest of weather then the savings could be neglible to negative... however, only direct observation or a good heat loss calculation will give you the answer to the question of how well your heating system and house are matched.

Also consider the risks associated with not heating certain rooms. For example, are you sure that none of the rooms you want to cut off feature water pipes in the walls that might potentially freeze? Remember, there is no such thing as turning down most steam systems, they're either on or off, as mentioned above.